Bristol Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham. What's on Bristol Road? Or what's not on Bristol Road?The University is there, the student houses are there and every thing
the students need can be found on Bristol Road or a bus ride away from
it. You basically can live on Bristol Road: photo by Moayad Hassan, 1 February 2009

Drawing passes the time a lot. Some people buy it and it helps me eat. These have got a bit wet today.": image via Humans of Birmingham @Humansofbham, 2 August 2014

Icknield Port Loop from Rotton Park Junction bridge over
the Soho Loop on the BCN Main Line Canal, Birmingham UK: photo by
Oosoom, 19 March 2012

I have a small shop and if my customers leave happy then I have nothing in life to complain about". : image via Humans of Birmingham @Humansofbham, 29 July 2014

Ashkan, Bristol Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham.It may not look much to you, but Ashkan is a real chain of grocery shops in the UK, or at least in
Birmingham. Just a few meters from this butcher shop on the same
street there is another Ashkan grocery shop selling Mediterranean and
Middle Eastern food products.Do you need Arabian bread? vine leaves? nekhy? bajella? qamardeen?
leban? or maybe canned harees? You can find it all, and more hard to
find food stuff, in Ashkan.Ashkan, one of Allah's blessings to ease the home sickness :): photo by Moayad Hassan, 1 February 2009

"It's good to feed people in #Ramadan because they're very proud of themselves for fasting..." : image via Humans of Birmingham @Humansofbham, 29 July 2014

"What do you like the most about #Birmingham?"
"I'm trying to think of one thing to say..."": image via Humans of Birmingham @Humansofbham, 22 September 2014

The start of the BCN [Birmingham Canal Navigations] Main Line, 1960. The junction to the left is for
the Oozells Street Loop, the original course of the canal before
straightening. Taken from a boat turning even sharper left towards the
Worcester and Birmingham Canal, after leaving Farmer's Bridge top lock
at about 11:10 in the morning: photo by Robin Webster, 17 April 1960

""Every week we help fundraise for a different charity, for projects in Africa and the Middle East.": image via Humans of Birmingham @Humansofbham, 24 June 2014

"Some people read, some people play sports, I paint. That's really what it is...": image via Humans of Birmingham @Humansofbham, 94 July 2014

Custard
factory at the former Devonshire Works, Digbeth, Deritend, Birmingham UK
-- door with new AS1 graffiti. Heard a bunch of kids to the left of
here. Not sure what was going on: photo by Elliott Brown (ell brown), 12 November 2011

What was your most embarrassing moment?"
"The time I fell asleep drunk outside Subway City is probably up there." : image via Humans of Birmingham @Humansofbham, 1 August 2014

"My name is Eesa, I am from #Syria and these two men from #Birmingham saved my life.": image via Humans of Birmingham @Humansofbham, 11 August 2014

Henleys, chav chic! You have to picture the scene. The guy in the
center was drunk. Can of Stella in his back pocket and proud owner of a
Henleys t-shirt. Top chav chic(Birmingham UK): photo by Martin Robert Smith (TranKmasT), 3 May 2010

This
is The Custard Factory in Digbeth, from High Street Deritend. On High
Street Deritend they are restoring the original part of the
Custard Factory (the bit labelled Bird and Sons). I wonder how long it
will take to finish restoring the former
Devonshire Works? I returned in February 2010, to find the scaffolding
taken down. Devonshire House is a Grade II listed building. 1902. Red
brick and terracotta with some stone dressings. Four storeys
plus attic; 3 bays. Ground floor of terracotta with 6 windows in
recesses with ause-de-panier arches, those of the 2 outside bays with
ogee gablets. The 3 storeys above are separated vertically by thin
polygonal shafts with decorative finials which divide the bays, and
horizontally by wide bands of brick to the outside and of terracotta
to the centre. In the centre, the bands inscribed 'Alfred Bird and
Sons Limited/ Devonshire Works/1837 and 1902' with foliage. Within the
grid of shafts and bands, the first floor with couplets of 2-light
transomed windows with arched lights and the second and third floors
with central windows of cross type and outer couplets of arched
windows. Arched parapet with, over the centre bay, a shaped gable with
2 arched windows, tilework of a ship in full sail and little
pinnacles. Left and right of this composition, later wings of lesser
interest, that to the left of 2, that to the right of 8 bays. To the
left again, railings with the Bird's custard motif in them.

The Bearwood High Street at the junction of St Marys Road: photo by Mark McQuilty (Tingy), 28 October 2005

Birmingham New Hospitals Project from Bristol Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham: photo by new folder (Billy Fallows), 8 April 2008Metal Works, Icknield Port Road Birmingham. Another discarded lecture
slide. This one dated 10/1959 is labelled Metal works Icknield Port Rd.
To my mind the focus of the slide is the BCN repair depot on a loop off
the Birmingham - Wolverhampton canal. A number of work boats are drawn
up waiting for materials, much of which is lying around, canal gate
timbers, lock mechanisms, building materials for bank/building repairs.
The roofs in the foreground contain blacksmith shops carpentry shops and
stables, all are listed buildings and still stand. The photograph was
taken from the north end of Edgbaston reservoir. Although the
slide is 53 years old no colour work or sharpening was needed but it was
covered in scratches owing to it's long use in a lecture set by Mr
Maurice Steadman University of B'ham: photographer unknown, October 1959, posted by Geoff Dowling, 13 April 2012

Thanks in particular to Hazen and Deep East Texas Memory for remembering the great early funk classic Tighten Up, by Archie Bell and the Drells.

The instrumental arrangement and horn tracks on the record were contributed by Archie Bell's Houston homeys the Texas Southern University Tornadoes, who backed Bell on a small label 1967 release of the tune. Atlantic picked it up and a year later it became a chart buster.

The basic riff had been developed by the TSU band, their signature in effect. As the story goes, Archie was not happy about getting his draft notice in the mail. His friend Billy Butler brought him the TSU Tighten Up dance riff, and the TSU band backed up in the original October 67 studio work on Archie's record.

The record became a #1 hit, a success Archie learned about while recovering from injuries sustained in combat action in Nam.

In this recording and in live performances Bell makes a point of identifying the geographical source of the music -- "we're from Houston Texas". He explained that after the Kennedy assassination, the whole state had acquired a bad name -- "nothing good had come out of Texas and we were from Texas and we were good."

The TSU Tornadoes and the twisted history of Tighten Up

The polar opposite of tough, tight and together would be Fox News, weak, slack, loose, and together with nothing but the vast fortunes currently awarded to mass-produced dishonesty on a global scale.